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Published at 21st of August 2017 04:01:08 AM


Chapter 224

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Chapter 159 - (Chapter 224): Ticket




Year 7446, Month 2, Day 29



Last week when we left the dungeon a letter had arrived from my brother in Bakuddo. It seems the next time they'll come is near the end of next month. The confusion from dispatching last year has already calmed and it seems they're bringing another huge load again. Since he has various fine jobs he has to take care of as the lord, the one coming this time is sister-in-law Shani-san. It seems that mother can't take her hands off training Zetto and Becky with magic. Come to think of it Zetto and Becky should already be six years old? Seven years old? I want to see them.

Maybe when sister-in-law Shani-san returns I'll accompany her and return once as well. There's also the matter with Kuro and Mary. It seems they're still squires. Though I say that, they started off as Free People who didn't have any sort of combat training. Even if they're reincarnated people blessed with a high degree of growth, there's no way they'd make it as knights in just four years. Even the child of a commoner that's received combat training since they were young takes an average of four years. Doing it in less than that is impossible. Not to mention, they weren't enlisted after being properly recognized for their abilities.

Ah, putting that aside, as expected we weren't able to get our hands on any treasure in the dungeon this time. But, there is one thing that's bothering me. There's clearly some changes that can be seen in the teleport room on the 5th floor. One of the corners is the place where we {Slaughterers} have been using since the year before last but it was prepared with a reasonable level of kitchen, foot bath, and other facilities. Of course there's a shower room as well. The corner diagonally from that was where the facilities the former {Sun.Ray} used that was left just like that. Occasionally we're cleaning it as well.

When we first absorbed {Sun.Ray} we discussed moving these facilities to the teleport room on the 7th floor but since they were all worn-out and cheap everyone was against bringing those to the front line. Above all else Giberuti said, "If it's this then I can't make anything very delicious." which decided it. We thought that eventually a reasonable number of people might stay in the 5th floor so we decided to just leave it as it is.

The change that we noticed this time was that of the remaining corners left one of those was suddenly furnished with another cheap portable stove comparable to the one {Sun.Ray} had and there was also some boxes which we have no idea what's inside of them packed together. It's probably large pots, kettles, and stuff though. Additionally there was around 10 peoples worth of blankets and bedding. The floor was dry and we couldn't see any traces that it was being used but inside of the shower room bucket there was a single magic stone from a boss on the 2nd floor, the Owlbear. They probably intended it as payment for using it. The Identify value was about 6,000 so if we sell it that'll come out to over 40,000 Z.

The {Verdure.Brotherhood} and {Black.Topaz} huh? Otherwise maybe {Gehenna.Flare}. At the very least some place has completely cleared the 5th floor and it's evidence that they're clearly aiming for the 6th floor as a hunting ground.

Eh? Zenom? He's super strong as usual. That magic axe can be used even if you don't throw it. It seems Ralpha borrowed it from Zenom and tried using it as well but said, "This is a waste for me to have." and accepted it.

Putting that aside, today is the first day of a three day break.
Currently we're in the middle of a rest break from doing cooperation training a bit outside of the outer crater, having tea time.

"Is it fine to talk for a bit?"

Kamu came over to where I was accompanied by Rokko.

"It's about the dungeon but I think it would be about a good time for us to go to the 2nd and 3rd floor as well though.."

Rokko said while chewing on the stem of a long piece of grass. What era delinquent are you from?
This guy, even though he's an elf and his build is completely different.

"..Why?"

From the 1st floor until the 3rd floor, excluding the room bosses fundamentally all of the monsters you encounter in the halls are the same.
As you go to the lower floors there's a tendency for the levels of monsters to vaguely get higher but from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor there's only an average of a 1 level difference. The 2nd floor is in the middle of that.

"No, I mean, putting it frankly the enemies on the 1st floor are an easy victory right?"

Don't lie. Even the {Slaughterers} would suffer some injuries if we spent an entire day running around the 1st floor fighting consecutively. Since we have a lot of members who can use magic I wonder if there's an impression of us not getting hurt very often? Even that has it's limits and as we get tired our movements get dull. It's only obvious eventually we'll end up taking some attacks.

Call it an easy victory when you can spend almost an entire day fighting it alone without getting hurt even once.

She must have noticed my displeased face, Kamu started talking try to follow up for him.

"Nn..It's a bit difficult to say. That is, we were originally called one of the top teams right."

Yeah, and?

"And you know, since around August of last year, it's been about half a year..that we've always been on the 1st floor? After all you know, isn't it a bit embarrassing?"

I see now, the so-called pride of a former top team huh? Though if you were to weigh out pride and your lives I'd pick my life. Even if it's uncool I think it's better than dying. But, I have no intention of rejecting their pride itself either. It can become a big driving force after all. Also, while there's only a handful of them in a persons life but there's times when a person needs to remain obstinate with their pride on the line as well. Although, I don't think right now is that sort of time.

"That sort of thing huh? Got it. If you can clear through the 1st floor in 4 hours then that's fine. I'll keep an eye on things in the dungeon for a week starting tomorrow. I'll make the decision based on you all making it to the teleport room on the 1st floor a number of times. I guess departing at 8 am in the morning and returning at 5 pm in the afternoon? The condition is arriving at the teleport crystal two times every day. Ah, I'll also add the conditions for going past the 2nd floor as well. If you can reach the teleport room on the 2nd floor by 5 pm in a stable way after departing at 8 am then it's fine for you to go to the 3nd floor. The condition for going to the 4th floor is departing at 8 am in the morning and reaching the teleport room on the 3rd floor by 8 pm, if you can do that then I'll make going to the 4th floor okay as well I guess."

"4 hours huh..Alright, that'll be easy!"
"I thought you would say that. Well just watch."

"Yeah, I'm holding my hopes high. And then, from here on out just fundamentally think of the leaders we dispatch from the {Slaughterers} as an advisor for command during combat and achieving objectives. For example you can ask them a plan on what to do for reaching the 1st floor in 4 hours. If they think everyone's idea is correct then I'm sure they'll adopt it and if they don't think it is they probably won't make use of it. They'll only have the authority over things like the timing and duration for breaks and who keeps lookout then. I want everyone to start thinking about picking the course and the speed it takes for moving through the dungeon. I'll tell them to abide by your requests in regards to the course and speed as much as possible."

They should have already learned about the pace from the dispatch leader from the {Slaughterers} as well. Wouldn't this be just right? Putting aside clearing through the 3rd floor, if it's their current abilities then I'm sure it would also be best to raise the standard and I'm sure they can at least manage going to the 3rd floor.

Then, in that case, I'll need to prepare some proper bedding and blankets for Henry and Ruby as well. Also, it's not just the {Butchers}. I'm sure the {Exterminators} will also get fired up over the rivalry as well. Even they originally had gone as far as the 4th floor.




.................




Year 7446, Month 3, Day 6



According to Bel who accompanied the {Butchers} and they were properly able to reach the teleport room on the 2nd floor twice every day.

"Then starting next week it's fine for you to go to the 2nd floor. If you can precisely clear through the 2nd floor by evening then it's fine for you to go to the 3rd floor as well but prove it to me by showing you can continue it for at least one week."

I declared that to the members of the {Butchers} including Kamu and Rokko when I showed my face at their usual gathering place for dinner. They were all happy hearing that.




...............




Year 7446, Month 3, Day 15



Well I had already expected it but the {Butchers} gained the ticket to the 3rd floor as well. You might think they were fast to clear through the 2nd floor but if you can clear through the 1st floor twice every day it's not strange at all.

Rather than that hearing that the {Butchers} could go to the 2nd floor the members of the {Exterminators} were roused as well and started giving it their best challenging for the ticket to the 2nd floor. However, for the last two days they weren't able to arrive there twice by 5 pm. The day before yesterday they ended up being 30 minutes or so over and yesterday it seems they were 40 minutes over.

This time, since Miduchi was dispatched to the {Exterminators} they must have thought it was their chance since they didn't need to worry about healing spells but..it seems they decided to challenge it a bit too soon. Although, it seems like their teleport luck wasn't very good and on the last two days they ended up with routes that took 9 km and 10 km. They say luck is a part of ability as well.

However, it's a good trend. I went to the trouble of dispatching a leader from the {Slaughterers} so they wouldn't get too impatient and trip up somewhere. I wanted them to get into the habit of properly setting goals, and building up their true abilities while aiming ahead for them while they can now.

Well, if it's like this then it's just a matter of time before the {Exterminators} get their hands on the ticket to the 2nd and 3rd floors I'm sure.




....................




Year 7446, Month 3, Day 24



As expected even if they're the {Butchers}, their hands weren't able to reach the ticket for the 4th floor. According to Ralpha who was accompanying them, even then it seems like they're using their heads and the amount of time it took them to clear through the 1st floor was 3 hours. And then they took a slightly early lunch in the teleport room on the 1st floor before immediately wanting to step foot on the 2nd floor.

It seems they understand the importance of getting proper breaks and resting but Ralpha evaluated them as being in a hurry.

Putting aside the {Butchers} who are in a hurry, the fact that Ralpha is evaluating them way means they probably want to proceed without taking much of a break at all. If I hadn't left Ralpha with authority as the leader it might have been dangerous.

Also, the {Exterminators} were splendidly able to gain the ticket to the 2nd floor.

If you were to ask what the {Slaughterers} have been doing and we've filled in quite a bit of the map of the 8th floor. I guess around 50% of the entirety? However, when it comes to things across the floors and it's hard to tell. If it includes the 9th floor then it wouldn't even be 50%. In the off chance that the 10th floor is mixed in as well then it would be even less I'm sure. The room bosses are just trolls as usual. The only thing we could call a harvest is that we obtained just a single gold ore.
We still haven't found a monster room in the area we believe to the 9th floor where the monsters in the passages change.

Starting from the 8th floor, to the 9th floor(convenience sake), returning back to the 8th floor, then if we have good luck(?) we'll find a monster room, that sort of feel. If we have bad luck(?) then it's just a matter of going back and forth between the 8th and 9th floors. Ah, also we found the teleport crystal that leads to the 9th floor as well. However, we haven't tried touching it. If you were to ask why, it's because it gives off a completely dangerous feel to it. Or at least the reason for that is because, while it's not to the extent of the 14th floor that I was forcefully teleported into in once upon the time, but based on the map it seems there's a strange and stupidly large 2 km diameter or so room in the center of the 8th floor.

The salvation is that just like the other parts of the dungeon, the floor still gives off light when moving.
Even then because it's too spacious our field of sight only goes about 50 meters or so as usual. Even when I tired looking around with Identify vision I wasn't able to find anything that seemed like a monster in the range of it but there were rocks laying around all over the place so it's not like things were clear enough for me to see even in the effective range of Identify.
The huge once were even as high as 5 meters or so. Of course, nothing got caught in the spell {Detect.Life}. either.

Miduchi commented on this situation as, "It feels like there's a {Guardian}." In other words, it seems it would be best to think that there's something like a gatekeeper guarding the teleport crystal that leads to the 9th floor. I wonder if it's something like {The.Gazer} we encountered on the 14th floor? Then, in that case it's only obvious in regards to the 14th floor, but if we think that there's one on the 13th floor as well, then that would mean they start to appear in the latter half of Baldukk dungeon. After all the 7th floor must have been the center and midway point of the dungeon.

"They were pretty common in games right. Something like a mid-boss standing in wait at the end of each floor. If you don't defeat that then you can proceed to the next floor. Though it's often the case that there's some kind of condition or a special key needed for a door, the one who usually has or manages that is the boss that protects the floor."

Everyone was nodding hearing what Miduchi was saying. Toris and Basutoral were saying something like, "I thought it was unnatural there was nothing like that up until now." Then say something about it.

However, if something like that is there then it'll be difficult. Honestly speaking I don't ever want to encounter something like that again. What we obtained was huge but it was way too dangerous. Though I say that, it feels like if we can't do something about it then we can't get to the next floor either. It might not be bad to go with just Miduchi and I again but if it's not {The.Gazer} and a monster which is better to have a front line against we'll be in trouble.

I think it's unlikely but if something like 100 trolls were to appear if I freeze them all at once we can probably win but after that is the problem. It would take too much work to let them out of the ice on at a time and take them on with just the two of us, eventually we'd end up completely exhausted and worn out.

Well, regardless of what I'm saying it's still scary.

The ambiance of the center room of the 8th floor is really, in any case just gives off an ominous feel. It's to the point where I even start to suspect whether it might all be a trap that makes you hesitate to enter with a small number like one or two people.
Of course something like that, it's not as if there is something.

Putting that aside, around tomorrow or the day after that sister-in-law Shani-san should arrive.

I wonder what I should do about returning home to visit?

It's fine to go but if it comes to that then we won't be able to go to teacher Mila's place again and as expected it's a bit scary to pull out even Miduchi..but I can't just keep ignoring Kuro and Mary. If you say that I still have about one year of leeway left then that's true but I don't think it would hurt at least seeing their faces. Also, I want to see Zetto and Becky as well..

If I'm going then I'd like to show everyone Bakuddo as well. However, right now is the ideal time to train the {Butchers} and {Exterminators}.

Above all, I want to see Myun's face.

Even if I had multiple bodies it wouldn't be enough.





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